West Visayas State University

College of Education
Graduate School
La Paz, Iloilo City

Foundation of Education

FND. 502

Second Semester

School Year 2013-2014

Meaning of Philosophy and its Branches

Submitted by:

Jane Bryl Hembra-Montialbucio

M.A. Ed. Filipino

Submitted to:

Prof. Perlita Delfin

What is Philosophy?

Philosophy is the earliest and the most original discipline. Philosophy is a systematic and
thorough attempt to relate the universe and human life to each other in a meaningful way.
Derivative meaning of philosophy: the term philosophy has been derived from the two Greek
words ‘philos’ which means love of and Sophia which means wisdom.
Aristotle’s view: Aristotle defines philosophy as ‘a science which investigates the nature of being,
as it is in itself.

Plato’s view: according to Plato, ‘philosophy aims at knowledge of the eternal nature of things’.
In short philosophy is an attempt to answer all the questions of life. This is so because human
mind is moved by ‘intellectual curiosity and by the desire for order’

Main branches of philosophy

Traditionally, there are five main branches of philosophy. They are:

1. Metaphysics, which deals with the fundamental questions of reality.

Metaphysics is the area of philosophy which deals with the ultimate nature of reality. Metaphysics
can encompass large areas of philosophy, and most other philosophical schools turn back to it for
basic definition.

In that respect, the term metaphysics is a broad one, encompassing the philosophical ideas of
cosmology and ontology.

Metaphysics or First Philosophy

The term “metaphysics” comes from Greek, meaning “after the Physics”. Although the term
metaphysics generally makes sense in the way that it partially refers to things outside of and
beyond the natural sciences, this is not the origin of the term (as opposed to, say, meta-ethics,
which refers to the nature of ethics itself). Instead, the term was used by later editors of
Aristotle. Aristotle had written several books on matter and physics, and followed those volumes
with work on ontology, and other broad subjects. These editors referred to them as “the books
that came after the books on physics” or “metaphysics”.

Aristotle himself refers to metaphysics as “first philosophy”. This term was also used by some
later philosophers, such as Descartes, whose primary work on the subject of metaphysics is
called Meditations on First Philosophy.

2. Epistemology, which deals with our concept of knowledge, how we learn and what we can
know.
- Epistemology is the area of philosophy that is concerned with knowledge. The main
concerns of epistemology are the definition of knowledge, the sources of knowledge
 (innate ideas, experience, etc.), the process of acquiring knowledge and the limits of
knowledge. Epistemology considers that knowledge can be obtained
through experience and/or reason.

3. Logic, which studies the rules of valid reasoning and argumentation

-Logic is the systematic process of valid reasoning through inference — deriving
conclusions from information that is known to be true. It is the area of philosophy that is
concerned with the laws of valid reasoning.

4. Ethics, or moral philosophy, which is concerned with human values and how individuals
should act.
-Ethics or moral philosophy is the branch of philosophy concerned with human conduct
and its moral value.

There are generally three branches of ethics:

 Meta-ethics, which is concerned with questions about what whether or not morality exists,
and what it consists of if it does;
 Normative ethics, which is concerned with how moral values should be developed; and
 Applied ethics, which deals with how moral values can be applied to specific cases.

5. Aesthetics which deals with the notion of beauty and the philosophy of art.

 Aesthetics is the area of philosophy which covers the concepts of beauty and art.
 “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”
 There are two basic standings on the nature of beauty: objective and subjective
judgement. Subjective judgement of beauty suggests that beauty is not the same to
everyone — that which aesthetically pleases the observer is beautiful (to the observer).
Alternatively, those partial to the objective description of beauty try to measure it. They
suggest that certain properties of an object create an inherent beauty — such as
symmetry and balance. Both Plato and Aristotle supported the objective judgement.
Some, such as Immanuel Kant, took a middle path, holding that beauty is of a subjective
nature, but there are qualities of beauty which have universal validity.
 Classical and Modern Aesthetics
 The classical concepts behind aesthetics saw beauty in nature, and that art should mimic
those qualities found in nature. Aristotle's Poetics describes this idea, which he develops
from Plato's teachings. Modern aesthetic ideas, including those of Kant, stress the creative
and symbolic side of art — that nature does not always have to guide art for it to be
beautiful.